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Nanofibers: finding applications in Wound care products

PROJECTPROPOSAL

1- DEVELOPMENT OF NANOFIBER NON-WOVEN BANDAGES TO PROMOTE CELL GROWTH AT WOUND SURFACE.1

2- DEVELOPMENT OF NANOFIBER NON-WOVEN BANDAGES WHICH STIMULATE WOUND HEALING.1

3- INCORPORATION OF BACTERICIDAL COMPONENT INTO NANOFIBER FABRIC.1

4- REDUCING COST OF MEDICAL BANDAGES BY EXPLOITING CURRENT MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.

I D E A S 1

Submitted by: Ubaid ur Rehman

School of Textiles, University of Borås

INTRODUCTION:

Nature operates at the nanoscale, and today we are acquiring an increasingly profound understanding of natural processes at this scale. At the nanometre scale, materials often exhibit surprisingly different physical, chemical and biological properties, compared to the very same material in bulk form. The properties of nanoparticles, such as increased chemical activity and the ability to cross tissue barriers, are leading to new drug delivery techniques.

OBJECTIVES OF THE THESIS:

The objectives of this thesis is to explore the prospects in which nanofibers can be used in medical bandages and in parallel, finding ways to bring down the cost of medical bandages by exploiting modern manufacturing techniques.

IMPROVING HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQL):

The major drawback of traditional dressing materials is that the loose fibers/lints trap into the healing tissue and cause trauma on bandage removal; nanofibers in general, form an extremely long continuous filament that means less chances of loose fibres being trapped in the healing tissue thus providing uninterrupted healing atmosphere, avoiding trauma and improving HRQL as a result. The nano size enables us to develop bandages so thin (and still effective) that they can act like a second skin, taking the comfort level of patient at a higher degree.

STIMULATING WOUND HEALING:

Using nanofibers in medical bandages has several advantages over traditional materials. Their major advantage over traditional materials is that they are similar in size to the nanofibers of our own body (fibroblast) and can be imitated to mimic our skin. This property makes them comparatively more compatible for use in medical textiles by providing an opportunity for healthy cells to grow in an ideal environment that means stimulated wound healing. Nanofibers have extremely high aspect ratio (surface area to volume) which provides more opportunities to manoeuvre them by incorporating medical aspect on their surface (effective delivery of medication).

NANO-FIBERS CAN BE EXPLOITED IN NO. OF WAYS (PROPOSED METHODOLOGY):

Using Functional Polymers:Functional polymers, collagen for instance, can be directly spun into nanofibers. The drawback is that due to their high molecular weights and/or solubilities, there are many functional polymers that cannot be spun into nanofibers. One of the most successful startegies for solving this problem is to blend them with polymers that are well suited for electrospinning. This too has certain limitations.

Encapsulation of Functional Components:Another approach is to add functional components to the solution for electrospinning to obtain nanofibers with a diversified range of compositions and well-difined functionalities.

Modification of nanofibers:The nanofibers prepared by electrospinning can be modified in a number of waysto improve their properties and/or to increase the diversity of materials that could be processed as fibrous nanostructures. Surface coating can be a simple approach in this regard but modification can be done using both physical and chemical processes.

Nanofibers with Core/Sheath structure:It is also possible to fabricate corer/sheath nanofiber for with the use of conventional setup for electrospinning, when a polymer solution containing two polymers that will phase separate as the solvent is evaporated. This type of structure is useful for incorporating medications like bactericidal components.

Nanofibers with porous structure:The surface area of nanofibers can be further increased by switching the structure from solid to porous. This increase of surface area can be of great advantage specially for absorption and medication/drug injection.

COST REDUCTION OF MEDICAL BANDAGES:

The major hindrance in widespread use of medical bandages in developing countries is their high cost. A recent study undertaken by Textile Research and Innovation Center (TRIC) in Pakistan shows that the price range of modern/unconventional medical healthcare products is from Rs.40/- to Rs.3000/- and the conventional bandages are as cheap as Rs.10/-(The details of the study are attached)Cost reduction of medical bandages is needed to make the advantages of modern medical bandages available to a common person from third world countries. For this purpose, modern manufacturing methods and materials can be explored to bring the prices down.

EXPECTED RESULTS/ACHIEVEMENTS:

I hope to achieve with this project the target of producing self medicating nanofiber bandages by incorporating different kind of medications inside the fibers or by electrospining of functional polymers to produce nanofiber bandages; and all of it produced in a cost effective way to make them feasible to realize manufacturing and easily approachable.